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When Do You Keep Your Own Stuff?


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I recently tried a new technique.  It was a rather busy underglaze decoration in pastel colors on speckled clay with satin clear on top. I am normally not a pastel person.  I absolutely love it and just can't bring myself to sell it.  I also can't bring myself to make more because it was far too time consuming for my sensibilities.  It's small, so plenty of room on the shelf.  The stuff I keep is usually slightly flawed, or not quite up to snuff.

 

How about you.  How many times have you not been able to sell a particular piece.  Do you eventually sell or gift it?  Do you have any "rules" about when you can keep something....like, "one pot in, one pot out."???

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They say, "Never grow attached to your work". The reasons being, it may slump, crack, or otherwise break, glazes will run, or generally not turn out. And if it does survive as expected, you generally have to sell it.

 

I fully understand that philosophy. But sometimes exceptions can be made. If you really like the piece, and don't see yourself making another, keep it. And if someone ever sees it, and really likes it, sell it to them, or make another, as long as they are willing to make it worth your while. If not, you have no incentive to sell it, and it gets to stay in your collection, win/win.

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I keep some pots for a while for inspiration or I just like them but I eventually let them go.  I do have a couple of pieces from high school and a group of Anazai pottery from college that I keep.  I let one of my Anazai pieces go and I regretted it immediately, I gave it to a friend who was getting married, I knew he would like it.  When I gave it to him he told me his fiance wouldn't like it but he did and would find a place for it somewhere.  I knew at that moment it would end up in a closet or the trash.    Denice

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I keep some pieces I really like until I am ready to sell them. It may be a month and then again it could be years. You just need time to absorb whatever lesson it is trying to give you. I have several pieces in what I like to refer to as my Private Collection. They are for sale but not at the regular price.

Once I gave a piece I really liked to a friend who said they loved it .... only to find out they gave it away to someone else within the week. I never would have let it go if I had known.

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Guest JBaymore

I keep the occasional piece that is the "best of the best".  Probably one or two pieces every 4-5 years or so.  They are either the retirement fund (to be eventually sold off when I am no longer making work..... hopefully never ;) ), the inheritance for the kids if I don't NEED to sell them beforehand, and also work to show in any potential retrospectives. 

 

I also keep a couple of good (but not the best) pieces of work from every body of work I produce and sell when working in Japan. Those I typically do not want to sell here in the US...... and I have rarely even shown a piece from there as NFS in a US exhibition.  Those ones are a bit 'special' for me.  Eventually they likely will fall into the categories above.

 

Also nice to see the evolution over the years.

 

best,

 

...................john

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I have larger pieces, that I have not been able to sell. Does it matter? No. My wife and I enjoy having them in the house with other pieces that have just accumulate over the years. At times, when I need to have the space, I will donate them to a worthy cause holding a auction of sorts, Open bowls, library fund raisers, Disaster funds etc. Strangely enough, when it is a cause, the prices for the pots are considerably higher than the market, but more in line with the time and effort expended on my part. Special pieces, are Special, and there is not amount of money that can pay me for the joy of making.

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Hahaha! I only keep pieces that are just slightly flawed to be unsellable. I neverrrr keep my best stuff. :D Makes me sad sometimes, since I don't get pics in time of those beauties before they're sold! Ah, well. My philosophy is, "I'll just make another one."

 

OH

 

I also have the VERY FIRST piece I EVER threw off the wheel, waaay back in 2003. It is the wonkiest eyesore you've ever seen, and the handle looks like it has advanced rheumatoid arthritis (ironic?), but I will NEVER part with that ugly ^10 reduction-fired lump! It is an eternal reminder of how FAR I have come (I didn't throw again for six years, because I was just so bad at it), and how HARD I had to work to get to the point I've reached.

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I only keep the flawed pieces I can't sell but really like dispite their flaws. I have a goblet with such a beatifully carved bottom. The top actually came unattached from the bottom leaving a big hole in the goblet. I glazed them together so it's a working cup but definitely not something I would sell. Now I drink wine from it and admire the bottom.

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I'm using a mug this morning that has a tiny crack in the bottom. Just came out of the kiln.

I keep stuff that I am not able to repeat-as in woodfired pots from Australia.

We have 3 busted teapots on our deck. One from Aus. One has a broken handle, but I like the colour. One has a lid that's chipped all the way around, and one we keep our house key in..shhh!

I have Majolica pots-so that if I ever go back to that technique I will remember what I was doing.

I used to keep all of my babies, but now there have been hundreds. Sometimes they just have to leave home.

Big studio sale today. Good-bye children. Good-bye.

T.

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Some food for thought.  

 

On Page 79 of the book Michael Simon Evolution, Michael Simon writes that after 10 years of selling almost everything and owning very few of his own pots, he realized that he was losing the clues and details of how his work had developed.  Thereafter, he started saving a pot from each kiln load with the idea that it would be a "marker of his development".  

 

It's a fascinating book..

 

-SD

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That is a good point SD ...

Dwight Holland is a NC pottery collector and one of the most important aspects of his collection is that he bought many pots from the same potters over the span of their careers ... 30-40-50 years ... so an Art historian can clearly trace the development of their work. He had a good sense of the importance of supporting struggling potters by buying their wares. The entire collection is going to be at East Carolina University for the pottery students to touch ... Yes, that is his one rule ... All the work is to be handled as he believes feel is a better learning tool than pictures.

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That is a good point SD ...

Dwight Holland is a NC pottery collector and one of the most important aspects of his collection is that he bought many pots from the same potters over the span of their careers ... 30-40-50 years ... so an Art historian can clearly trace the development of their work. He had a good sense of the importance of supporting struggling potters by buying their wares. The entire collection is going to be at East Carolina University for the pottery students to touch ... Yes, that is his one rule ... All the work is to be handled as he believes feel is a better learning tool than pictures.

 

It's amazing just how many pots Dwight has collected.  You could get lost for hours wandering around his house where every surface (vertical and horizontal) seems to be covered with pots.  ECU is very lucky to benefit from his passion.

 

I think saving your best work is telling, especially when you compare it to your current work.  Some things are surprisingly good in retrospect, but that's often not the case! Hopefully our current work is always our best and there are better pots to be made tomorrow.

 

-SD

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A friend once told me that she keeps what she considers the best piece out of a firing …. at least until another piece comes out that she likes better.  That's the way she gauges her progress.  When she selects a 'better piece', she may sell the previous one.  I've kind of adopted that idea, however, I haven't yet let go of a few pieces that I know I'll never recreate.  

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I keep every piece until someone buys it. They tend to rotate in the house until we get a new one to replace it and then they get boxed up and ready to ship. :)

I've sometimes been a little sad when a piece got sold, but I figured it was going to brighten up somones home and that makes it worthwhile.

Mc

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Made a bowl, using glazes, that I've used many times before. This combination, and the way it was applied, turned out very well. I really like it, so it was made for an "Empty Bowl" event. So, charity is more important, than my desire to keep something I can make again, many times over.

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Often times the best of ideas, just don't pan out the way you envision them. Then later when you revisit the idea with new understanding of the clay, the idea is better. This can continue through a lifetime, a re-visitation of a theme, a test of ones knowledge and expertise. It could be a teapot, a strange sculptural piece, some sort of combination of wheel and handbuilding or some other theme. Whatever it is, revisiting it tests your understanding and depth with the clay. Re-visitations of mine usually stay around until the next visit.

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This is my two cents worth for how to handle the decision if your normally selling your products.

 

If your personally attached to a piece and know it is more time or material consuming than what is normally profitable then put a price on it that so that if it sold you have the incentive to try and duplicate the piece.  

 

The big thing I think is your building your pieces for profit , simply selling to offset your cost, or doing it pure hobby.

 

On a hobby bases then you want to keep the pieces you like the best period, and probably give away the rest.

 

If your selling to make up the expense then it is personal choice and would do as I initially suggest probably.

 

If your doing it solely for profit then you have to simply set the prices so each piece is profitable.

 

In my case I got into this because I could not find at a reasonable price the items I would like.  Yes they were available cheaper than I can build them as a purely functional piece but I wanted something both practical as well as decorative which skyrocketed the prices.  So I started building on a pure hobby bases.  But quickly I'm realizing that it can be a very expensive as a pure hobby.  .  Therefore I'm hoping on perfecting or at least improving my work to the point that it can be comfortably sold.  My intention is to sell to offset some of the cost and as I improve keep the best pieces for my personal use.  The feasibility of this is very questionable as the market will be very limited for my work compared to many other items I see here.

 

But remember this is my personal opinion and many others may view it completely different and neither of us may be more right or wrong for our individual situation.

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Dennis,

 

If you market area is limited you could always go to something like etsy. I have spent hours looking through shops and there are quite a few potters who sell thousands of sponge holders, spoon rest and soup dishes. I imagine you could make them to supplement your main interest. 

 

I am not sure how easy it is, but most of the main sellers on there seem to be selling the majority of their items below 15 dollars, with the occasional higher priced mug or bowl here and there.

 

Although turning a hobby into work always makes the hobby less enjoyable imo. 

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I keep a lot of my own work...why buy dishes when I can make them? I tend to keep the ones with minor cracks on the rim or chips on the bottom, and I often test out glaze combos on these. Sometimes I keep a thing because my husband says he really likes it.

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Dennis,

 

If you market area is limited you could always go to something like etsy. I have spent hours looking through shops and there are quite a few potters who sell thousands of sponge holders, spoon rest and soup dishes. I imagine you could make them to supplement your main interest. 

 

I am not sure how easy it is, but most of the main sellers on there seem to be selling the majority of their items below 15 dollars, with the occasional higher priced mug or bowl here and there.

 

Although turning a hobby into work always makes the hobby less enjoyable imo. 

 

Actualy the area i wanted to get into was Aquarium decoratons that are actualy frunctional.  Presently people buy cheap terra cotta pots  for breeding caves as well as planers in aquariums,  Often these are not the ideal size for a particular situation,.  and the drab color is not ideal as it usualy cotrasts with the plants or gravel..  This fall there will be auctions in the area and they should give me me good idea of what the martetable price for my pieces should roughly get.  Right now I'm paying for kiln time and if the pieces turn out to cover my present expenses then I'll be looking at adding a kiln. 

 

No I'm not looking at making a living in this field.  But if I can cover my own expenses and give me a few extra dollars to ocassionaly expand I'd be very happy..  To me any artistic is a labor of love especialy after being side tracked after college into the more technicial fields. 

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